Objective Morality – 8

(It is a bit astonishing to think what all has happened in the last five months, but I will try to pick up where I left off, so as to finish out this series).

Last time we had a brief Q&A regarding moral epistemology and ontology, and over the course of the series we have dismissed with alternative answers to the question of “What is The Good by which our moral actions are judged good or evil?”

It is not simply “whatever promotes the survival of human beings” or anything evolution can deliver; it is not whatever one feels very strongly about, as this can change and others may disagree; it is not anything subject to time, matter, space, or energy, or else the standard itself would be subject to change and decay; and while it might be Plato’s form of The Good, this seems to be more a shadow of the truth than the whole truth itself.

Then, unceremoniously, I suggested that only God could qualify as The Good.  Of course, this is the entire point of the argument.

Here it is, formulated by Dr. William Lane Craig:

1. If God does not exist, objective moral values and duties do not exist.

2. Objective moral values and duties do exist.

3. Therefore, God exists.

 

We have seen how #1 is true as all other candidates for moral ontology have been found lacking.  #2 is true on the basis that it is self-evident, and that attempts to deny it lead to monstrous absurdities.  If both premises are true, and the argument is valid, then the conclusion commends itself to rational minds:  God exists.

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